


Love Let My Love Inside Go Free

by allmilhouse



Category: Three Strangers (1946)
Genre: F/M, Fate & Destiny, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-06-09 14:01:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15269010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allmilhouse/pseuds/allmilhouse
Summary: Johnny West had had two bad encounters with groups of strangers recently. One led him to be wrongly imprisoned, and the other was trying to cheat him out of a fortune.Free from jail, he now faces a few choices- and wonders whether he even has a choice in the matter at all





	Love Let My Love Inside Go Free

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the Mother Mother song Free. 
> 
> I! adore! this! movie! It's so poignant and sad but weirdly hopeful?? Also I was weirdly drawn by the parallels in Fallon recruiting West for his own profit and betraying him/Crystal Shackleford recruiting West for her own profit and _intending_ to betray him out of convenience, idk maybe I was reading too much into it

Freedom. Johnny West hadn’t tasted anything as sweet as the first breath of fresh air as he walked out of the prison and into a small park on the warm spring afternoon. Even the most divine liquor could not compare, a fact that surprised even Johnny himself.

He hadn’t been a free man for quite some time. And not just from being in jail, under suspicion of a murder he obviously had not committed. Fate held him captive just the same, keeping him in less than desirable circumstances and causing enough stress that he turned to drinking, which had even a tighter hold on him.

Finding a drink was on his to-do list at the moment, but for once it wasn’t a pressing concern. Something had happened to Johnny during his short time behind bars. He had gained some perspective, perhaps, or maybe learned the odds. At any rate, for the moment he was content enough to take his time, enjoy a few more lungfuls of that delightful London air, and bask in the sunshine so deep he could feel it lighten his soul.

Icey is his top priority now. The charming young woman who doted on him was now one of the few bright spots in his life- a light that drew him in from the dark. He couldn't explain how or why she had come to love him- Johnny had never considered himself a man worth caring about. A common drunk, albeit an articulate and philosophical one, he wasn't exactly a catch. And yet. Icey had gone out of her way several times to help him, yes mainly to fetch him gin, but still. She always came back, a smile on her beautiful face, happy to see him. He wouldn't be able to provide much for her, but maybe that was the point.

He sat on a bench for a few minutes, humming a cheery song, to figure out the next step and light a cigarette. Another man was already sitting, and they exchanged pleasantries. The man rambled on about some horse race, and Johnny mumbled some unintelligent answers, until a name caught his attention. Crystal Shackleford. The woman who bought his sweepstakes ticket weeks ago. 

What an odd coincidence. Five minutes after being granted freedom, fate finds a way to pull him back in. He had been part of the agreement after all, a promise with Shackleford and Arbutny to share in any winnings. And just because the deal with Fallon had nearly ended disastrously didn't mean that these strangers would betray him as well. 

Johnny glanced at the paper, and quickly learned the score. He needed to track down Mrs Shackleford immediately. He could potentially win 1/3 of a major prize. And while he'd never had much money before, or ever felt the need for it, suddenly it seemed important. Maybe he could provide for Icey, after all.

__________________________________________

Crime doesn't pay. Johnny knew that now, quite literally. Falling in with bad crowds had twice now ended in murder and misfortune. Never meet strangers on the street, he told himself, and certainly never agree to anything while intoxicated. He turned his drink in his hand. He was back at The Blue Crown now, mulling it all over, and for once he didn't have a desire to drink. In his other hand he held tightly on the sweepstakes ticket. He tried, but he found he couldn't be bitter over it. 

So Shackleford and Arbutny had been greedy, and had met ruinous ends. But the same needn't be true for him. He wasn't motivated by the same dark forces that propelled his two one-time partners. Truth be told he hadn't been motivated by much in life, which was probably why he kept falling into these predicaments.

He thought about Icey, and how he would’ve lavished her with gifts, if he could redeem the ticket. Unlike the other two, money for himself wasn’t the concern. He was fine stumbling along, very nearly broke, or at least he had been, until quite recently.

He wasn’t really a criminal, so it wasn’t as simple as him needing the love of a good woman to keep him on the straight and narrow. But maybe if he did have something to hold onto to, someone to come home, someone counting on him, he could find his footing easier. And that was a scenario he found strangely appealing.

Maybe he couldn't fight fate. It was an idea that had slowly been dawning on him the past few weeks. Maybe some events were predetermined to happen, and try as one might, they were impossible to resist. And yet. This could be true, and a man could still forge his own path. Individual choice in the face of an inevitable circumstance might make all the difference in the world. He turned the ticket over and read the three names again, thinking of the odd occurrence that had brought them together, and the evil and mistrust that sent them parting. 

A small commotion at the door distracted him from his reveries. Icey was here, rushing into the bar. She had spotted him at the table by the far wall, and hurried across the room and into his waiting arms. 

Johnny hugged her tightly and kissed her forehead before siting back down, a thoughtful look on his face. He recounted his recent misadventure, but reassured her he was not in trouble anymore. They laughed together as he burned the now-useless ticket, and he felt a tension he didn't know he was carrying release from his shoulders. Icey held his arm, and he leaned into her warmth as the flames erased his last connection to that fateful night. He was finally a free man.


End file.
